8. Relax with a real man’s massage: go ayurvedic

Wikimedia Commons

Bumpy rickshaw rides and long-haul flights from North America can do a number on your lower lumbar and nerves. Solution: an ayurvedic massage. Ayurvedic medicine is the ancient, holistic practice of soothing aches and pains and rejuvenating one’s body and soul, usually with a mix of herbs, oils and steam. But this isn’t Bangkok. In India, men get a massage by a male, women by a female. If you get the coconut oil treatment (gobs of it poured on your head), understand that you’ve just become Club Med for mosquitoes, so relax for an hour with a cup of chai while your skin absorbs the restorative oils, then shower and go.